Posts Tagged ‘china chrysler’

A Toyota dealership in Qingdao was burned by protestors in a dispute over an island chain claimed by both China and Japan.

General Motors and Ford Motor Co. have ended 2012 with all-time sales records in China — but the news is nowhere near as good for Japanese makers.

Stung by a dispute between China and Japan over a chain of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, Toyota, Nissan and Honda have all suffered a sharp decline in sales in what has become the world’s largest automotive market.

While General Motors has yet to release its final figures for 2012, the maker already passed its previous peak by the end of November, the 2.59 million vehicles it sold for all of 2011. GM has set a goal of boosting sales in China to 5 million by mid-decade.

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Ford, meanwhile, has confirmed its sales in China rose 21% last year, to 626,616, also an all-time high. The maker was a relative latecomer to the Chinese market but has been aggressively expanding both its product portfolio and production capacity over the last several years.

China’s fast-growing automakers pose a direct theft to the more established automotive order, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne warned during an appearance at an annual automotive gathering in Northern Michigan today.

But the Canadian-educated executive said he is more confident than many that the industry will be able to meet the newly-approved 54.5 mpg Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standard – and without having to make a major shift to electric propulsion.

“We cannot afford to be unprepared for the ascent of China. Even assuming China were to export only 10 percent of what it produces, the risk we face in our home markets is enormous,” said Marchionne, during an appearance at the annual Management Briefing Seminar, in Traverse City, Michigan.

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“The excuse that we did not understand or that we underestimated the scale will serve no purpose. Rather we need to continue to work to make our industrial base more competitive, because the day of reckoning is inevitably coming,” he said, taking aim at the seeming complacency of companies such as General Motors, Daimler AG and Volkswagen AG, all of which have grown to depend on the Chinese market.